Hybrid working–is your IT ready?

“Hybrid vigour” is a term from genetics, describing the observation that pure pedigree animals tend to be more vulnerable to sickness than cross-breeds. So it is in the world of IT. Adapting to hybrid working – where employees divide their time between office and home working – might not be easy, but once achieved it leaves your business in a stronger and more secure overall position.

Of course, some companies are ahead of the game, having decided years ago that they’d rather have a workforce out in the wild than one stuck in cubicles. Or it might be that your systems and procedures are already well adapted for other reasons. As you’ll surely recall, prior to the pandemic, one of the most urgent challenges facing businesses was the growth of ransomware. It was such a major issue that the government issued official guidance on how to minimise the dangers of a ransomware attack. Defensive strategies included thinking about how to be resilient and avoiding too much reliance on big, isolated, special-purpose systems. As it turns out, these recommendations also apply to hybrid working.

I suspect that